ARR or Heavensward Classic

[Arkdra]

Easily one of the worst takes I have ever seen about this game. Removing aggro as a mechanic instantly ruined tanking for the next 5-6 years or however long it has been.

Oh yeah, because doing a couple of threat combos and then switching off of tank stance for the rest of the fight, wholly ignoring said threat combo after was super engaging. This mechanic that was meaningless to competent players but a massive stumbling block for the bad ones was definitely a load-bearing mechanic.

Oh wait, no. The removal of threat as a relevant mechanic is probably the single greatest qol feature added to this game outside of the glam dresser. What was previously the number one source of vote kicks and abandons vanished overnight. Not only were tanks holding threat consistently, I also never had to deal with the middling nervous tank who sandbags their dps 25% or however much it was for the whole dungeon by never leaving tank stance.

[xivYuiM]

Oh yeah, because doing a couple of threat combos and then switching off of tank stance for the rest of the fight, wholly ignoring said threat combo after was super engaging. This mechanic that was meaningless to competent players but a massive stumbling block for the bad ones was definitely a load-bearing mechanic.

Oh wait, no. The removal of threat as a relevant mechanic is probably the single greatest qol feature added to this game outside of the glam dresser. What was previously the number one source of vote kicks and abandons vanished overnight. Not only were tanks holding threat consistently, I also never had to deal with the middling nervous tank who sandbags their dps 25% or however much it was for the whole dungeon by never leaving tank stance.

I was more referring to the limits you could push in non-raid content (like dungeons) where there was endless fun to be had in trying to maximize the damage you could deal while also staying just on the edge of losing aggro or dying because you lost the damage reduction from tank stance. If all you wanted to do was hold aggro and not worry about anything else you could just turn on stance and walk forward while you spammed flash and used DCDs which is basically how every tank has been forced to play for many years now. There is no depth, no reward, no excitement. The dungeons mobs can't kill you, you can't lose aggro, and every player does pretty much the exact same DPS (assuming you have the same gear on) while we mash the same 3 abilities without thinking for 17 minutes in a dungeon. Dungeons in HW were more exciting than the savage raids we have today.

In fact, at least if all you wanted to do was spam flash you would still need to worry about having enough MP to do it.

[Hallarem]

Oh yeah, because doing a couple of threat combos and then switching off of tank stance for the rest of the fight, wholly ignoring said threat combo after was super engaging. This mechanic that was meaningless to competent players but a massive stumbling block for the bad ones was definitely a load-bearing mechanic.

Oh wait, no. The removal of threat as a relevant mechanic is probably the single greatest qol feature added to this game outside of the glam dresser. What was previously the number one source of vote kicks and abandons vanished overnight. Not only were tanks holding threat consistently, I also never had to deal with the middling nervous tank who sandbags their dps 25% or however much it was for the whole dungeon by never leaving tank stance.

The moment Pictomancer could rob aggro with their crazy damage, was the single most engaging thing in dungeons I've experienced as a tank. The dungeons are a snoozefest on a tank, I have can tank 10 000 vuln stacks, solo bosses and aggro as a mechanic is gone. There is 0 need to even CC mobs. You are basically running through a slideshow of sightseeing. All the bosses are just dodgeville, why bother positioning them when they teleport to the middle anyway, most of them don't even do anything that would endanger the group if I tanked it in the middle of the group, my positioning of them does NOT matter, the tank does not guide the group nor guide the flow as they do in EVERY SINGLE OTHER MMO probably. Over half of them are just wallbosses that don't move AT ALL.
If you're a lazy sightseer, Yeah? Probably great for you. If you actually want engaging content and job identity, probably not so good for the game.